Pillow Sandwich

Real conference day one. Alarm at 5:41am. Didn't hear it. Why? Because our hotel is pleasantly situated right next to the bars and I discovered at about 1 am if I sandwich my head between two of the squishy hotel pillows they are very effective sound barriers. Actually, too effective.

Thank God for moms.

The ISBNPA 2015 conference is really spiffy: they offer morning yoga or walks, whichever suits your fancy. Today I joined the yoga class and talked to a delegate (read: conference attendee) from Belgium. Fascinating lady! Side note: Belgians have no idea what a bento box is.

St. Giles at 6am... the streets were dead

The talk I gave in Alisha's place went great and I met some incredible researchers. There was even one interested in food waste! It's just an exciting yet frustrating field. There are so many barriers to healthy eating in the home and outside of it, but how to tackle them and change perceptions is where the creativity comes in.

En route back to the hotel at warp speed I saw a familiar face. Elena and I were hectically scampering through a crosswalk when my mouth literally fell open. Elena dropped her iPad and caused us to stall and in that moment I exclaimed "DR. AZAIN?"

Yes, my undergraduate swine nutrition specialist advisor was in Scotland, on vacation, with his wife. He didn't recognize me at first which was not at all shocking, it's been at least 4 years since he has seen me. It was bizarre having my animal science mentor from UGA meet my PhD advisor from VT. From his standpoint, I'd have to say I'd be pretty excited to see where my students end up. He only seemed mildly surprised that I was doing nutrition. After all, he did teach my animal nutrition class and he did know that I was considering animal nutrition. That is, until I realized that meant calculating TMRs for the rest of my life. No, thanks.

Continuing on our mad dash to the hotel, I attempted to make it in time for breakfast but sadly missed it. Their fruit bowls that were set out now are missing about half the fruit in them. Not my fault. Sorta.

Woofing down my pilfered fruit, I sat down for about 4.52 seconds and headed back over to the conference for an immensely hectic poster session where I got to see some fellow VT folks: Dr. Estabrooks, Dr. Hedrick and Dr. Wilson. Exciting stuff! There were just so many posters and so little time. I did talk to a lovely Kiwi woman working on sports-associated foods (think rugby game food) and how bad it is. And then we talked about rugby instead.

Off to another speaker- Dr. Watts talked about influences on adolescent healthy eating barriers. She did some photovoice studies which are wicked cool: basically you give a teenager a camera, tell them to take photos of what they call "healthy" and then they discuss their photos.

Walking back from the conference: Edinburgh castle

And then after walking back... what happened? MORE WALKING! My legs are actually going to fall off. 20K plus steps today. Yikes.

Ever since the enlightenment from Rick Steve's mom has been dead set on the oldest tenement house in Edinburgh from the 1600's. What's a tenement house you ask? Basically just a big house.

We shuffled up to Gladstone's Land as mom talked up the "amazzzziiinnnngggg touuurrr exxxppeerrrrrrienccceeeeee". Well, it was pretty neat if I do say so myself. Plus, there were owls outside. Bonus.

The orange eyes matched the hat. Fashion forward.

Back in ye old times pigs were used for rides (hence "piggyback") and their poop used for soap. Yes, I'm serious.

The first room was the cloth room where Thomas Gladstone sold wine, spices, dried fruits, and, here's the shocker, cloth. He measured the cloth using a stick (think yardstick) called an "ell". Apparently back in the good old days it was customary to cut cloth slightly crooked, with the longer side of the cloth called the "safe side". Safe, because if a cloth merchant decided to shortchange a customer the offending merchant would be hauled out down the street to have his ear nailed to a post. Yes, he would be "earmarked".

They loved their creative punishments back in the day.

Upstairs I talked to another volunteer about footwarmers with hot coals. She also talked about how when bedpans (the toasty warm kind) were replaced with stone warmers they were still made just for fun to hang on the walls.

In the kitchen, there was a chamberpot (yes, they pooped in their kitchen- sanitary!), fireplace, babywalker (that only went forwards and backwards) and a variety of kitchen utensils. Pewter plates were used, hellooo registry! I also saw the largest non-commercial grater I've ever seen which was exclusively for salt (not cheese sadly) because that was their number one preservative. I'd love to see a nutrition label for their foods.

People who cooked also wore stiled shoes becuase, unlike our health-inspected commercial eateries, the floors were covered in "muck". What comprises "muck" I care not know- recall they poop in here. E. coli, anyone?

The bedroom was right next door and had a canopy bed a la "Felicity" of American Girls dolls. You 90's kiddos know what I'm talking about. The ceiling was hand painted and preserved by happy accident when the ceiling was plastered in the Victorian era. Whoops gone right.

One of the volunteers recommended we walk over to the Elephant House cafe where the famed HARRY POTTER books were born. Of course, I got me a nerdy photo. Can't help myself.

I should've brought my copy to pose with. Rookie mistake.

Side note: These creations put my culinary attempts to absolute shame.

Notice the reflection of the little old lady salivating in the window.

Picking up limpy, we walked down to Kirk of the Canongate, a chapel that the Queen graces when she visits. The doors were locked, but the graveyard next door was really fascinating to wander around.

Pretty facade

One of many gravemarkers

Thanks to the takeaway lunch style at the conference (bloody brilliant if you ask me) I had dinner half covered. The other half was an assortment of passion fruit, CRUMPETS (caps for emphasis), and an entire carton of strawberries. Normal, right? I should get more CRUMPETS tomorrow. I ran out.